Creating your own podcast

Podcasting Resources

You’ve heard about podcasting—professional or homemade audio broadcasts available on the Internet—and you want to make your own. Before you start recording, you may want to check out the style and format of some popular podcasts.

What you will need (at a minimum):

1. Input device: Microphone, digital tape recorder, certain types of cell phones

2. (To create MP3 files) Audacity: A free, open source software that allows you to record live audio; convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs; edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files; and cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together. Audacity is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.
URL: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Then, go here: http://www.free-codecs.com/Lame_Encoder_download.htm since you will need a .dll file in order to get Audacity to save your recording as an MP3 file.

3. (To play MP3 files and sync to your iPOD) iTunes: Free music placer from Apple computer. You can play MP3, and all sorts of audio files. Also allows you to easily sync to your iPOD or MP3 Player. lets you find, subscribe, manage and listen to podcasts right in iTunes. With thousands of free podcasts—from favorites such as ABC News, Adam Curry, ESPN, KCRW and more—all organized by category, the new Podcast Directory puts on-demand radio at your fingertips.
URL: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

4. (To access and download podcasts) iPodder: A podcasting application that allows users to capture and listen to Internet audio programs anytime, anywhere. It allows you to select and download shows and music and to play whenever they want on their iPods, portable digital media players, or computers automatically, after specifying which music or shows they want to listen to, and specifying times at which they want their programs downloaded.
URL: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ipodder/iPodder21Setup.exe?download

Another option:
Quick Time 7:
Step 1
Open QuickTime 7 Pro on Windows. If you don’t have it, get QuickTime 7 Pro today.

Step 2
Check your recording preferences. Open the “QuickTime Player Preferences” from the Edit menu and select the recording tab. First, click the “Choose…” button next to Microphone to select the device you will use to record your podcast. Next, verify that the format is set to “AAC Audio (.m4a)” as this is required for compatibility with iPod. Last, choose the location where you would like your podcast to be saved. Click “Apply.”

Step 3
Choose “New Audio Recording” from the file menu. (Be sure your audio input device is connected.)

Step 4
Click the red Capture button and begin recording with your audio input device. Click the black Stop button when you’re done recording.

Step 5
Rename your file. The default name for your podcast will be “Audio.” If you would like to change the name simply select the file, click the right mouse button and choose “Rename” and name the file accordingly. Congratulations — you now have a file that is ready for publishing.

You can publish the exported file to the Internet as an enclosure on a blogging service, such as Blogger, and wrapped in a podcast-friendly RSS feed. (Please note: the audio file must be hosted on a web server such as .Mac.) RSS feed providers, such as FeedBurner, make it easy to create an RSS file from your blog.

Want to reach a potential audience of millions? Publish your podcast to iTunes Podcast Directory (subject to it being free of copyrighted or overtly explicit material). For inclusion in the iTunes Music Store, you’ll need to provide the link to the podcast RSS feed and all episodes within a podcast must be available as either AAC (.m4a) or MP3* audio enclosures.
Happy podcasting.